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Saturday, September 22, 2012

I've been hunting for the OPI Hong Kong Collection lately and received one of my orders yesterday, in which Red my Fortune Cookie was included. Something about it fascinated me so I put it on immediately! See for yourself.

Three coats with top coat. I only needed two coats on my right hand. Weird, huh? Anyway, I know this makes me look even more pale than I already am and it comes off quite orange, but for some reason, I feel I can wear it anyway. I really really like it.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Today I'm showing you a pretty nice combo that is shimmery, but subtle and thus quite work-appropriate. Here we go!

essence - Rosewood Hood (Wild Craft LE)

Three coats for even coverage. A light beige nude with very subtle silver shimmer.

with uma cosmetics - heavenly white on top

One coat as shimmery green topper. I really like it, but I would be even happier if it gave a blue or purple shimmer. This was taken in the light of the evening sun, so it might appear a little orange or yellow-tinted.

I really like this combo, but sadly it chipped this morning :( I guess the fact that the layers of polish were thicker than my actual nail didn't really help. In any case I had to take it off when I got home...

Monday, September 17, 2012

Today we're gonna check out Catrice's Limited Edition "Hollywood's Fabulous 40ties" nail polishes. I have to warn you in advance that my camera didn't pick up all colors as they really are. I will try to describe what they really look like. All swatches are with top coat; first picture is in direct sunlight, second picture is indoors, window to the left side.

Red Butler

Three coats. This is a bit darker in real life. I like it.

Holly Rose Wood

One coat (which was surprising for me). The second picture shows the color pretty well (in the bottle). This is my favorite of the bunch.

Marlene's Favourite

Two coats. This is not as bright orange in real life, more like a pinky orange; quite muted as well. Still, too orange for my personal liking.

The Nude Scene

Two or three coats with top coat. The color is displayed quite accurately (in the bottle). It is like a very very light pinky taupe. It makes me look like I have no nails if you're not too close up, which is weird. Not too big a fan of it, but it's okay.

Doris' Darling

Two coats. The color is shown quite accurately in the second picture (in the bottle). Not really my color I'm afraid, but it looks okay.

Application on all of these was fairly easy, they're neither runny nor gloopy. Which is your favorite?

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Here's the third misslyn polish I picked up on Friday plus the mani I wore yesterday, which I really loved and am definitely gonna wear again.

misslyn - heart of gold

Three coats with top coat. It's a bit sheer and doesn't suit me AT ALL, but the golden glow and the perfectly suitable name shut down my rational thinking.

essence - passion for fashion with night in vegas

ISN'T IT SO PRETTY? Three coats of passion for fashion and one coat of night in vegas. I love love love this combo! I saw a similar combination in one of Tartofraises' videos on YouTube (check her out, she does beautiful nail art!) - here is the design she did. I thought the base was so amazing that I wanted to recreate it ^_^

So that was that, I hope you enjoyed this post :) Also, would you be interested in a post on my favorite YouTubers that make videos about beauty-related stuff?

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Among others I picked up two beautiful red polishes yesterday. These always make me think "Lady in Red", but I'm not a lady, so... Anyway, here we go!

heat wave

Three coats since the base is a red jelly. It's packed with multichromatic fine glitter. When I took it out of the display in the shop it flashed yellow, green and blue, I was entranced... These photos are with top coat, overcast sky. It really shows its duochrome/multichrome qualities in the sunlight. Very beautiful. I feel I can wear this, it doesn't make my skin look washed out. The jelly base reminds me of the color of cherries.

magma

Two coats. A shimmery red. Nothing too unique, but the name seemed oh-so perfect to me! The photos are without top coat, overcast sky. I feel this makes my skin look very pale, it doesn't seem quite as wearable to me as heat wave (for me personally).

The base I used was the essence peel off base coat that I also acquired yesterday. It works well, smells like those white liquid glues and gives me a weird feeling when it dries, as if my nails were pulling themselves together/shrinking. It also feels VERY cold. But most polishes do, which is one of the reasons why I always get icy cold hands when I do my nails. So yeah, it feels weird but otherwise works well. They advise you to avoid hot water for 3 hours (!) after you've used the base coat, which is a bit of a bummer, especially in winter...

See you tomorrow when I show you my other purchase plus my weekend mani! ^_^/

Thursday, September 13, 2012

...and to celebrate the blogiversary, Elena - the wonderful lady who runs the blog - is giving away three sets of various polishes that she has swatched before, but doesn't intend to keep in her collection - check it out:

The images above are clickable thumbnails - the real size of the photos makes the body of my blog explode and look really weird, that's why I opted for thumbnails. I put the photos on my Photobucket because some people get really riled up about hotlinking and all that stuff so I figured it might be better to get it on my own (stupid) filehosting site. Dear Elena, I hope that's okay with you? If not I'd be happy to use your links - so much less effort :P

Even if you don't speak German be sure to pay Elena's blog a visit - she has gorgeous, really long nails in great shape and her swatches are awesome! Plus she always comes up with really fun nail art ideas. If you have any questions on the polishes don't be afraid to comment, since on top of all the great things I just mentioned she also speaks English and will definitely get back to you!

Since I'm probably coming off as the biggest a**kisser in history, I'll now stop my endless praise and just add that I have my eyes on Set 2...

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Here's the recipe I've been talking about in my last post. No comments on my question so I'm just deciding on my own, bwahaha! I'm so evil...

What you'll need

pasta - any kind you like; I used the whole packet = 500 gr
milk (again, any kind) or cream - quantity depends on how much sauce you want
cooked ham - 150 gr (mine was in slices but it doesn't have to be)
dried tomatoes pesto - 200 ml/190 gr
oil
salt

First get out a pot, fill it with water and set it on the stove to cook for the pasta.

Next get out a deep pan and put some oil in it.

Now cut your ham into any shape or size you like.

Once your pan has heated up, put in the ham.

Let the ham get a bit brown (or very brown if you prefer that). Turn the heat down a bit.

When your pasta water is cooking, throw in a generous amount of salt and pour in your pasta.

Add the pesto to the ham.

Pour the milk/cream on top of the ham and pesto. Mix.

It'll look something like this. Go by eye here - if it's too thick add some more milk or cream. If it's too liquid let it reduce down. It all depends on how thick or liquid you want it!

About a minute before the designated time, check if your pasta is done. Once it's cooked, drain it.

Put as much pasta as you want in a deep plate (no need to wait for it to get dry) and put the sauce on top - tadah!

I imagine this would taste great with bacon instead of ham, too. Of course you can add anything you like to this, e. g. veggies.
I'm sorry I didn't convert the measurements; it's just because I quite honestly have no idea what you US guys use as measurements for all these things. You have cups and ounces and all that stuff and I'm honestly confused. Sorry!
If you try this, definitely let me know what you thought of it!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Both two coats, both have a nice formula and were very easy to work with. During the day I wore Jade Is The New Black on its own; later in the afternoon I added chic reloaded which I just purchased today. It's a multichrome, as you can see - and it's really pretty. Pictures are with top coat.
I didn't think so before but Scrangie recently made a post about it and WOW was I surprised how amazing the polish looked! So that's the story behind that...

I'm having a bit of a debate with myself at the moment. I wanted to post a recipe for a really easy and quick meal that I make quite often, but I'm not sure if that would be "okay". What do you think? Would you like to see the recipe?

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Today I'm showing you the nail polishes from the cherry blossom girl LE. I did go back to pick up "Cherry Cherry Girl" after all, and then I thought "Oh well, whatever, I'll buy the other remaining one, too!", so here we go with all four!

Fortune Cookie

Yellow with silver shimmer. This is three coats with top coat.

My Little Kimono

Taupe with shimmer - I can't decide whether I think it's blue or silver. This is two coats with top coat.

Cherry Cherry Girl

Red with a lot of orange to it, no shimmer. I'm not quite sure anymore if that was two or three coats, but I'm thinking three. Also with top coat.

It's Peach Not Cherry

Peach tone, no shimmer. Here I'm also unsure if I did two or three coats but I'm once again thinking it's rather three than two. With top coat.

I'm not totally into any of these, but my favorite is probably "Cherry Cherry Girl", although colors with that strong of an orange tint usually don't make my skin look too great. Anyway, the formula seemed a little runny but not too bad - just had to do more clean-up than usual. Which is your favorite?

On another note, I decided to give the eyeshadow quad another try, so I used an eyeshadow base and applied the product with a brush; and I think that vastly improved the color payoff. See for yourself:

I noticed that a lot of people came in from a Polish forum to see my post on my picks from the cherry blossom girl LE - guys, don't give up on the quad just yet! It can work with a base underneath. Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about the qualities of the quad other than color payoff since I haven't tried to blend the colors or anything like that.